An unusual cause of traumatic reticulitis/reticuloperitonitis in a herd of Swiss dairy cows nearby an airport

Abstract

This report describes the findings in five cows from one dairy herd, in which all 31 cows were slaughtered or euthanased because of traumatic reticuloperitonitis. All the cows had numerous thin sharp pieces of metal attached to a magnet in the reticulum, giving the magnet a hedgehog-like appearance. Investigation revealed that the cattle had eaten forage harvested from a field immediately adjacent to an airport. The snow was cleared from the airport runways with a machine that had a wire-bristle brush attachment. Mechanical wear resulted in numerous wire bristles breaking and these were blown with the snow onto the field in question. The wire then became accidentally incorporated into the hay and grass silage at harvest the next summer and was ingested by the cattle in the fall and winter. To prevent further cases, approximately 200 tonnes of hay and grass silage contaminated with wire were discarded and 30 hectares of the 50-hectare field were cultivated and re-sown. The wire-bristles of the snow plough were replaced with plastic bristles. The cost of this and the livestock loss was several hundred thousand Swiss Francs.